Bank Holiday and the sun is shining

Only one thing to do, get out on the bike and ride. It ended up as a group of 5 and we rode a tough route with some good hills and I was able to test my position again with some sustained uphill efforts. I'm pleased to report that after 2 good rides in 2 days it still feels comfortable and, more importantly, powerful. I am definitely faster up the hills. We also had a mad 30+mph sprint towards the end of the ride. I jumped off the front too early and was caught 100m or so from the finish line - I just couldn't sustain the pace all the way to the finish and the scallywags jumped out of my slipstream right at the end. A very enjoyable ride in the sun, though - 2 hrs 50 minutes and 80km. The next 4 days will be spent clocking up the miles at sub 140bpm pace to allow my body to absorb the tough miles of the last couple of days.

Train smart folks.

A few reviews

The weather was kind this morning and although it was a bit windy it was sunny and dry and my bike computer was showing 19 degrees by the end so all in all quite pleasant. I was out with Coastal Controller (who has IM France in a few weeks), Andy (a colleague from work, IM Austria in a few weeks) and Hamish (who I have ridden with regularly over the last year or so and completed a few sportives with). The ride was very pleasant and I recorded just over 72km in a whisker over 2.5 hours. But today was a day to review stuff, so here goes.


1. My new Litespeed paint job. Although I have posted a number of pictures on my blog they really don't do the new paint job justice. Today was the first time Jonny had seen it and he was impressed; in the sunlight the Italian pearl white metallic appears to 'shimmer' and the subtle logos are just so stylish (even if I say so myself). Less is most definitely more in this case.

2. Shutt Velo Rapide kit. You may not have heard of this company as they are relatively new but they produce a range of quite stunning cycling kit. See here: http://www.shuttvr.com/. Today I was trying their team jersey and coolmax socks for the first time. I'll start with the socks because they're easy -white, with a subtle logo on the outside. Co-ordinates well with the bike and my other kit (and that's, like, really important!) and do the job of a sock very well. Very comfortable, in that I wasn't aware of them at all during the ride, and kept my feet cool. Job done.

The Team jersey is made of merino wool mix and so has excellent heat management properties, keeping you warm when its cool and cool when its warm. Its very soft so feels nice against the skin. Its also quite stylish and attracted positive comments from my riding buddies. Having never worn merino wool before I was a little sceptical about the heat management promises, and had a base layer in my back pocket if needed. I'm glad to say that although Andy and Jonny were both dressed up for a full on winter ride my base layer stayed in my pocket, and even when Hamish and I ramped up the last few km into a 2-up TT style effort I never felt overheated either. So, good heat management properties, stylish and comfortable - what more do you want? A word of warning should you order any of the Shutt jerseys; I'm 5' 9" tall and usually wear 'medium' sized kit. I had to send the medium I initially ordered back as it was way too small, but the large is a perfect fit. Think Italian sizing and go one up and you should be fine. [Note: Please see comment from Pete of Shutt VR; only the race jerseys are 'slim' fit so order your normal size for any other styles].





3. And finally, the bike fit. As expected, my initial impression was that the saddle was too high, as I felt that I was over-extending my leg and being forced to point my toes at the bottom of the pedal stroke. Andy had a look whilst we were riding and confirmed this to be the case. But it was very comfortable and I tested myself on a couple of the hills and I was riding up them one or two gears higher than I had before (word of caution here, I have completed a solid block of training since I last did this ride so it may be that improved power output helped). On one hill I even rode up it in the big ring where previously I had always dropped into the small ring. I have no back or comfort issues to report either so the first impression is a very positive one, although I will wait and see how I feel in the morning.

All in all I'm feeling very positive at the moment. Train smart folks.

Bike Fit - The Differences

A picture paints a thousand words, so here are some pictures to show how things have changed following my bike fit. Firstly, PoD.

Before:

And after:The changes were limited to raising the saddle by several cms; I've forgotten by exactly how many but the old aero post wasn't long enough so I've reverted to a USE Triathlon carbon post. The previously flipped stem has been turned back to normal and the reach to the tribars has reduced by a cm with a corresponding change to the arm pads to keep them supporting my arms in a comfortable position. The position feels very different and I need to get out and ride some 10s to get used to it, as well as change my turbo TT bike to this new position.

As for the road bike:

Before:

After:

Note the upturned stem; not very pretty but unfortunately it had to be done. The bottom of the white dot on the seatpost indicates where it was before the set up. Andy wanted to move the seat back another 5mm but the saddle is at its maximum on the rails, so a new seatpost has been ordered with an extra 10mm of layback and then the saddle will be spot on.

I'm out riding with Coastal Controller tomorrow and will report back on how it feels. I'm expecting some odd sensations but we'll see how it goes.

Train smart folks.

Retul Bike Fit

14 May - Frank and a mate visit Andy at Bike Science for a TT bike fit and are impressed with the results. See here: http://whittlestriworld.blogspot.com/2010/05/my-retul-bike-fit-by-bike-science.html

18 May - Kelda visits Andy's Bike Science 'Surgery' in Rotherham and is impressed with the results. See here: http://grokgirl.blogspot.com/2010/05/phew-what-few-days.html

19 May - Mmmmmm, both Frank and Kelda appear to have noticed significant improvements in power output/lower HR/comfort etc etc following a trip to Bike Science. Is this 'free speed'? Only one way to find out, and that was to book a session with Andy Sexton at Bike Science and see what he could do for me. See here: http://www.bike-science.com/

28 May - A day of leave and a trip to Bristol. In the car I have my trusty Litespeed road bike and PoD, my TT bike. In preparation for today's session I had ripped off the number from QCB09; I really should ride my TT bike more!

I arrived at 1130 and Andy was just finishing off another customer (another RAF guy as it turned out, although I didn't know that until later and didn't recognise him). I unpacked the bikes and assembled them and then changed into my cycling kit ready for the set-up sessions. However, before I got on the bike Andy talked through my history and aspirations and ran through a number of flexibility tests (I'm a bit lop-sided as a result of an anterior cruciate replacement many years ago but not bad for an 'Old Git' apparently (although Andy was far too polite to actually say that!)). And then it was on to the bike.

First up was my Litespeed road bike. To start with, Andy looked at my cleat position, and once this was sorted we worked through saddle height, saddle fore/aft position, saddle angle, bar height and bar angle. As each one changed the effect on the others was assessed. All in all a very thorough assessment. The net result was that my position has changed MASSIVELY; saddle height is up 4+cm, bars up up to the maximum my forks will allow plus the stem is upturned. F-ugly I know but if it works ... etc. I need to ride it and see how it is on the road. If it's good then I will need to seriously consider a new frame for my 2011 plans.

And then it was time for my TT bike. To start with there were a few decisions made from the information I had provided. The races I will be doing on PoD in 2010 are The Outlaw (flat-ish) and Quelle Challenge Barcelona (pancake flat) so Andy decided that we could be quite aggressive when determining the settings for PoD. As a result, the saddle went up a lot. So much in fact that I need to buy a new seatpost! And at the other end, the bars went down, so the net result is HOOOGE!

The important thing, though, is that with all the changes they felt 'different', but not 'uncomfortable' or 'I can't ride that'. And even in the 15 seconds that Andy measured the position it had started to feel better. At the end of the session, that had lasted nearly 4 hours, I felt good. I was aware that both my bike positions had changed significantly but that anecdotal evidence from others would suggest that this would be for the better. Time will tell. Bottom line is that I thought this session was well worth the effort and expense. The proof, of course, will be in the power figures my turbo trainer gives me in the week's ahead.

In the meantime, I'm off to e-bay to get a new seatpost!

All the best folks; train smart.

Cycling Weekly 13 May 10

I took this issue of CW with me to Italy and read it thoroughly rather than the usual skip-read that I'm prone to do unless something really grabs my attention. And I'm glad I did. A couple of things caught my attention in the Fitness section.

The first was the Training Check-up, where an ordinary athlete reports on his training week and receives some expert analysis. In this week's issue the analysis started as follows:

"A couple of things immediately spring out from your plan. The lack of rest and the absence of structured riding sessions. Firstly, rest - recovery as the old saying goes, is the most important part of training. You aren't giving your body much recovery time and though we might not like to admit it, as we get older our need for recovery increases."

Enough said I think.

The second was the Research Corner. It gave advice on sessions you can do to gauge improvement even if you haven't got expensive technical equipment; all you need is a good old fashioned bike computer (although if you're doing this on the turbo it will need to work off the rear wheel). In short, the article states that there are 2 tests you can do where the aim is to cover as much ground as possible in the allotted time:

1. A 4 minute flat out TT. An increase in your 4 minute distance indicates a rise in your maximum power.

2. A 20 minute flat out TT. An increase in your 20 minute distance indicates an improvement in your anaerobic threshold (the ability to sustain high power output without a crippling rise in lactate).

These tests results are taken from a study undertaken by scientists at Exeter University so have some credibility, although the test group was quite small. From a layman's perspective what it means to the likes of me is that you don't need expensive power measuring equipment (although it's very nice to have if you can afford it) but can get credible evidence that you are improving from a couple of very simple tests. OK, so you won't be able to brag about how many watts you put out but so what? Most power measuring devices are not that accurate, and even those where the owners claim them to be accurate can vary significantly from one device to another. These tests are also repeatable and by recording the results in a simple training diary you can track your progress.

Train smart folks.

The Scales Are Messing With My Head

Further to my post yesterday, I got on the scales this morning and they said I weighed 11 4.6 pounds. This is more in line with what I was expecting after my holiday so can only guess that the scales were messing with me yesterday. Either that or an elf or similar jumped on the scales behind me! So, not such a major issue to deal with now and I can concentrate on racking up the miles and raising my FTP.

And isn't the weather fantastic? We're just back from a lovely family walk along the beach, collecting shells etc for our daughter's school project.

Holiday Stats - Oh Dear!

The day before I went on holiday I weighed myself and was a slender 11 stone 0.8 pounds. This morning I weighed myself after a week of pizza and other fine food, ice cream, red wine, beer etc and very little exercise other than walking. This morning I weighed myself and the result was an almost unbelievable 11 stone 12 pounds. Oh dear dear me! I find that quite staggering really. General diet advice says that 500 calories a day over or above your 'in weight balance' figure will result in a one pound per week difference. So to increase my weight by 12 pounds would suggest I overate by some 6000 calories a day, every day, for a week! It will be interesting to see how quickly the weight will fall off - I expect it will be significantly longer than a week!

Stay slim folks!

Italy

I'm home safe if somewhat tired. I didn't get to see the Giro although we did see a few Mavic service vehicles at a petrol station. We had a fabulous time although barely scratched the surface of what this wonderful country has to offer. We visited the awesome abbey at Montecassino; this was a truly unexpected treat and a truly fantastic bit of architecture. Pompeii was, as expected, fantastic (am I over-using this word?) and I was just not prepared for the sheer vastness of the site. We visited Rome and sat in St Peter's Square outside the Vatican, drank Capuccino in a street cafe (quite possibly the most expensive cup of coffee I am ever likely to buy!) and watched the Romans go about their business, was overawed by the sheer scale of the Colosseum and made a wish at the Trevi Fountain. Again, though, we were left with the feeling that we had just scratched the surface of what this fantastic city has to offer. We visited the 'olde' city of Sorrento, visited the cathedral and saw more incredible artwork including the local speciality of inlaid wood (it has a proper name that I can't remember). This cathedral was also subject to what I consider to be some of the most tasteless renovations I have seen; one room had been redecorated in bright blue with very bling-style gold fixings. I thought it was awful although I expect it has some religious significance. During our travels we saw the spectacular scenery of the mountain regions and some very flat parts, but all were very green. The cities were, in parts, bright and modern, whilst other parts were run down and in need of attention. I didn't see any Ferraris although saw a number of the original (and very tiny) Fiat 500s.

I ate a lot of pizza and have concluded that proper Italian pizza tastes infinitely better than the stuff that gets served up in this country described as 'pizza'. I've also consumed a lot of coffee and more ice cream than your average child might dream of! I will get on the scales tomorrow morning to determine the full scale of my gluttony. My penance will start immediately thereafter! Although there was no formal training we did a lot of walking, so hopefully that will stave off the worst of my excesses.

Time to rest now and restore my energy levels in preparation for re-starting my training programme on Monday. All the best.

Testing Times

With my holiday almost upon me I felt it was important to test myself before my short break, to give me a guide to where I am and how my training is progressing. Bear in mind that I am now following the Primal Blueprint (PB) principles of training which means doing plenty of sub 75% of max heart rate (MHR) work, avoiding the 75-90% of MHR zone and doing occasional sprint work to reach above 90% of MHR. For me this is very much experimental and although the author of the PB is convinced and there is plenty of evidence to show that it works, I remain sceptical until I can prove it to myself.

For me, the test is very simple; it's a 40km turbo TT. Get on, warm up, calibrate the turbo, then cover 40km as quickly as possible. For reference purposes, my PB for this was achieved on 21 Aug 09 in a time of 50:33. I started training for the 2010 season at the beginning of January, somewhat later than most but my A race is not till October. My first turbo TT was on 9 Jan 10 and was a tardy 61:34, so clearly there was plenty of work to do. As expected, though, consistent training saw the times tumble quickly and on 31 Jan 10 I recorded 55:42; a significant improvement but still well short of the 48-something I wanted to achieve to prove to myself that a sub-5 hour bike split was achievable at QCB in October. And then I went Primal. A change in diet and a change to my training regime meant that I was not doing the long, hard sessions anymore, and although I was racking up the miles and doing my sprint sessions I never seemed to be in a position to test myself, so I was never quite sure whether I was improving. A couple of sportives convinced me I was in reasonable shape, as I recorded gold standard times at both of them. But how was my absolute speed developing?

There was only one way to tell; get on the turbo and do it. Let's not beat about the bush, the 40km turbo TT is one very painful session. Ideally, you need to be well rested, well fuelled having eaten at least 2 hours before the test (if done properly this test will take you very close to the vomit threshold), and well hydrated. I can't say my physical prep was ideal but mentally I was up for it. I have done this test many times and know what to expect.

So how did it go? The cold hard facts are that I completed the test this evening in 50:48! Just 15 seconds off my PB and yet it's only May, and I haven't done any focussed speed work yet. I am, to put it mildly, completely overjoyed by this result. I can now head off into my Spring break in Italy knowing I am in good shape already and so a week off is not going to harm me too much.

When I get back from my holiday I will continue with the base-orientated work until the 200km Magnificat sportive on 13 June. I will then have a recovery week before starting a block of speed work that will take me up to The Outlaw Long Distance Triathlon Relay on 8 August. After this race I will analyse what part of my cycling needs attention and attempt to address this in the 2 months between The Outlaw and QCB.

For now though, I am off to enjoy the delights of Italy. Take care folks, train smart, race hard and rest easy.

Another Moral Dilemma ...

I go to Italy for a week's holiday on Saturday ...

The Giro D'Italia will be entering it's second week this Saturday ...

Sunday's stage finishes about 60km from our hotel ...

Monday's stage starts about 15km from our hotel ...

Can you see where this is going ...

Recovery

Recovery is important. No, it's more important than that; it's essential. Unfortunately, from reading various forums and blogs it's clear that a lot of people don't pay enough attention to it, and certainly don't do enough of it. Surprisingly, a number of people who, in my humble opinion, do insufficient recovery actually have coaches telling them what to do, and I find this, at best, surprising, and at worse, incompetent.

Following my hard bike ride on Sunday my week so far has consisted of:

Monday - Absolutely nothing, complete rest.

Tuesday - 20 minutes easy.

Wednesday - 67 minutes easy.

Thursday - No formal training but a day of low intensity activity.

I will start to pick it up on Friday and aim to complete a decent LSD ride on Sunday; update in due course.

My Litespeed

I keep promising pictures of my refurbished Litespeed but never seem to get around to it. Well this morning I had to clean it after yesterday's sportive made it look like a cyclocross bike and it seemed as good a time as any to take a couple of pictures. The colour is 'Italian Pearl White Metallic' and looks fantastic 'in the metal'. I also prefer the very simple 'Litespeed' logo on just the downtube as opposed to the scattergun approach used by most manufacturers nowadays to put a logo on every single tube.. What do you think?

Below is a picture of the Mavic Ultimate computer mounted on its own stem in front of the handlebars (please excuse my feet in the picture - I think you can guess that I'm not a professional photographer!). It's very easy to set up, use and read when on the move. I also opted for the e-skewer option that incorporates the speed sensor in the wheel skewer; a very neat and tidy option.

Jurassic Beast Sportive - The Stats

Here are the stats from yesterday's ride; ride time was 6:00:37, total distance was 163.4km, total ascent was 2522m, top speed was 69.2kmh and average speed was 27.1kmh. Ave HR was 151 with max HR of 181. Of this, 1:10 was below 75% MHR, 4:29 was in 75-90%MHR and 0:20 was above 90% MHR.

The official results show my finishing time as 6:11:11 at an average speed of 16.2mph for a gold standard ride; am happy with that. Only 20 gold standard rides on the Epic route gives an indication of how tough it was.

Jurassic Beast Sportive - Beast by name, Beast by nature

Today was the Jurassic Beast sportive, based at Bovington Tank Museum in Dorset, another one of the excellent Wiggle series. I was not familiar with the area but Wiggle rated it as 4/5 for toughness and a work colleague is from the area and gave me a quick run down of what I could expect. Despite this, I was still unprepared for the sheer number of hills I would encounter and their severity. The weather forecast leading up to the event was awful, with heavy rain and 20mph winds forecast. Fortunately the heavy rain held off and we only got wet a couple of times, but the wind was as forecast, although it didn't appear to be in the forecast direction. As every cyclist knows, a heavy wind is always in your face!

I was up at 0500 and after walking the dog I had a hearty breakfast (cheese omelette, 1 weetabix with muesli, orange juice and coffee) and was out the door at 0555. The satnav said journey time would be 1:45 but that's just a challenge, and I arrived at 0720 in good time to register, get my kit sorted and be on the startline for the first wave just after 0800. Registration and the toilets were in the Tank Museum, and the Army were clearly unprepared for a horde of cyclists as 3 of the 4 male 'traps' were U/S; glad I got there early!

Off we set and the early pace was set by a guy in full Wiggle cycle kit; it seems that he recced the route recently and was going at a fair old pace. No surprise then that when the route split at about 5 miles he headed off on the short route - I should have seen that coming. There were not many entered for this sportive and the first wave consisted of just 7 cyclists; a couple headed off on the short route and the first big hill shedded another couple leaving just 3 of us at the front. We seemed to be reasonably matched although strong in different areas. The first feed station came at about 28 miles and I swapped water for energy drink and loaded up on flapjack - the fuel of champions! We set off after a short break and were caught soon afterwards by a very strong cyclist and the young lad who was with us caught his wheel and disappeared off into the distance. So then we were 2. At this stage we were sheltered from the wind but the hills were long and painful. I mentioned in my earlier post on cadence that when my cadence drops I lose power quite quickly, and the long 15%+ hills were really affecting my cadence. These hills were a real grind completed by mixing up seated and standing climbing and just gritting my teeth. My legs were screaming and my heart rate was bouncing around above 90% for long periods.

Unusually for a sportive, at least the ones I have done, the longer route puts the extra mileage in at the beginning rather than the end, so we picked up the standard route after doing about 40 miles and thereafter passed a constant stream of cyclists, usually in varying degrees of distress on the big climbs. My buddy and I were now also struggling on the hills; I was able to get down on the drops and put some TT-style efforts in when the conditions were favourable, but these were few and far between. My legs were hurting from all the hills and I just wasn't able to produce decent power at such low cadences. This was turning into a long and painful ride. At the last feed station I stretched off, fuelled up with flapjack and jelly beans and my buddy and I set off. We asked at the feed station what the profile of the last section was and was told it was relatively flat with a couple of hills. I can only say that the term 'relatively flat' must have related to all the hills that had gone before, because it was far from flat! I was hurting, a lot, and it was not helped by my buddy getting a second wind and pushing on for home. I hung on as best I could while stuffing gels and Hi-5 down my neck in a desperate attempt to get sufficient energy to take my turn on the front. I did manage it a few times, including one sparkling turn where we maintained 45+kmh for a few kms.

The last few kms seemed to by all uphill; obviously they weren't but my legs were telling me otherwise. At the finish my bike computer said we completed 163kms in 5 hours 58 minutes of riding time; I suspect my overall time will be about 6 hours 10 - 15 minutes taking into consideration the feed stops. At the end I was in bits; I loaded my bike up and drove home then climbed into a lovely hot bath for a well earned soak. I'm now sat here with very sore legs and stairs are a challenge; anyone who has done an Ironman or a marathon will know what I mean.

I'm not sure why I was relatively poor on the hills today; 2 weeks ago I was strong although I will be the first to admit that the New Forest sportive was not exactly a hill-fest. Maybe the 180km of cycling I had already clocked up this week had a negative impact. This coming week will be all about recovery but I will add the hard turbo sessions in later in the week to maximise the training effect as I go on holiday to Italy on 15 May and there will no no training at all that week. Just eating and drinking!

I must say a quick thank you to my cycling buddy of today, Simon on the very nice carbon Felt. There were times today when he pulled me through when I was not feeling too great. I would also like to say that the 2 Wiggle sportive series races I have attended this year have been well organised, well signposted (although 1 signpost did go AWOL on a major roundabout today) and generally well run events.

I will post the ride profile when I get around to downloading it.

And as an additional bonus my average bike mileage has just broke through the 200km per week barrier since this year's structured programme started in January.

I'm off to rest now. Recover well folks.